The FIFA Effect: What Happens to the Mobile Market During Football Season
With billions of viewers tuning in to the FIFA World Cup, football events can reshape the mobile app economy. Learn which tournaments generate the strongest impact on app and game downloads and revenue, and how the effects differ between gaming and non-gaming apps.
— Diana Levintova
The FIFA World Cup 2026 is already underway, pulling in football (okay, soccer for some) fans from every corner of the world. FIFA expects up to 6 billion viewers globally, and when an event reaches that big a scale, mobile apps and games rarely go unaffected. But how large is the impact, and does it differ between gaming and non-gaming apps?
In this article, we analyze how major football events affect mobile app and game downloads and revenue, compare their impact, and identify which tournaments generate the strongest uplift and when. The research focuses on six key Western markets: the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. For the sake of FIFA expanding as Fédération Internationale de Football Association, we’ll stick to “football” rather than “soccer” throughout the piece.
Methodology: The uplift percentages for downloads and net IAP revenue (less store fees and excluding advertizing and D2C revenue) are calculated as the average uplift across all analyzed seasons of the selected tournaments in six target countries. Since many apps included in this research generate a significant share of their revenue outside mobile app stores, revenue estimates may not capture the full picture. As a result, the impact of sports events is often more accurately reflected in download trends.
Sports Apps: Win at Kickoff
The football calendar is packed with major tournaments, so we focused on five of the biggest events and analyzed their impact on app downloads and revenue across multiple years: - FIFA Club World Cup (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025) - UEFA EURO (2020, 2024) - FIFA World Cup (2018, 2022) - Copa América (2019, 2021, 2024) - The NFL (2018–2025)
The FIFA World Cup is in a league of its own when it comes to Sports app downloads. It drives installs up to +297% at the opening stage and keeps them +124% above baseline across the tournament. For both downloads and revenue, it’s the start of the event that drives most of the activity, as users rush to follow matches, scores, and updates.
UEFA EURO shows a similar pattern, but with a more moderate downloads curve. Revenue stays elevated throughout the tournament and peaks during the finals, hitting up to +66%—the strongest monetization uplift across all five events.
In some UEFA EURO editions, however, the picture gets a bit noisier due to an overlap with other major sports moments. The NBA finals, in particular, can blur the true incremental effect of football alone.
There are also a few country-level outliers, like when France saw a noticeable spike in downloads, largely driven by MPP - The Social Predictor.
Sport Apps downloads trend during UEFA EURO 2024
The app peaked on June 16, 2024, just two days after the opening match, hitting 513K downloads in France.
Download trends of top apps in France during UEFA EURO (2024)")
Alongside its regular advertizing, the app heavily featured UEFA EURO 2024 throughout this period.
Top MPP - The Social Predictor’s ad creatives around the UEFA EURO 2024 period (Jun 1–31, 2024)")
The FIFA Club World Cup generates a more moderate but consistent effect across Sports apps. Downloads and revenue remain steadily above baseline throughout the tournament, with the strongest uplift typically occurring during the final stage.
The NFL stands out for its distinctive season-long effect. Instead of a single sharp spike, it builds over time. Downloads peak at +64% during opening games and stay elevated through the season, with a second bump at +42% during finals. Revenue, however, is less prominent, with slight declines at later stages.
Some NFL editions make it easy to identify the app categories driving downloads growth, thanks to sharp spikes around key moments of the season. For example, the 2025 NFL season saw three major peaks in downloads on September 7 and 14, 2025, and February 8, 2026, corresponding to the opening games, the first weekend of play, and the final. The main drivers behind these spikes were sports betting apps, live sports streaming platforms, and the official NFL app.
Downloads trends of top apps in the US during the NFL (2025–2026)")
Copa América shows a similar pattern to the NFL, with its biggest download spike coming at the opening stage (+41%) before settling into more moderate growth through the tournament and ending at +17% during the final. On the revenue side, it’s second only to UEFA EURO, reaching up to +60% during the final stage.
However, like UEFA EURO, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. In 2021, the NBA Finals overlapped with the closing stage of the Copa América tournament, likely inflating both downloads and revenue for Sports apps. A cleaner signal comes from 2024, where downloads were closer to +5% in the final stage, with revenue staying largely flat. A more realistic benchmark may be Copa América 2024, when downloads grew by around 5% during the final stage, while revenue remained largely unchanged
Revenue trend of Sport Apps during Copa América 2024 and NBA Finals 2021
All in all, here is what we’ve learned so far: - FIFA World Cup drives the strongest growth in Sports app downloads. - Most tournaments see their biggest spikes at the opening stage, while the NFL is one of the few events that consistently attracts audiences both at the very beginning and during the finals. - When it comes to revenue, UEFA EURO delivers the strongest boost, with monetization generally peaking during the final stage, although some events also see notable revenue spikes during the opening matches. - While most events are primarily driven by their core markets, certain editions can see country-level spikes every so often, driven by local app popularity, active marketing, or exceptional performance of the national team.
And one more thing: context matters. Big tournaments occasionally overlap, which can distort the picture.
Sports Games: Playing the Long Game
While Sports apps tend to see sharp but short-lived spikes during football events, Sports games show a different picture. Instead of peaking early and fading out, engagement and downloads usually build over time, and often stay elevated even after the final whistle.
Like with Sports apps, the FIFA World Cup is the leading metrics booster for Sports games as well. However, the shape of the curve it generates is noticeably different: while app downloads peak at the opening stage and gradually fade toward the finals, game installs see a more moderate uplift at the start, continue building throughout the tournament, and ultimately peak at +71% during the finals. Revenue follows the same trajectory, albeit at a smaller scale, reaching an uplift of up to +24% during the closing matches.
During the FIFA World Cup 2022, audience growth was concentrated in a handful of leading games, particularly EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile Soccer 26 and Soccer Superstar. And, unlike non-gaming categories, that uplift didn’t disappear after the final match; it lingered for more than a month after the tournament’s final.
Downloads trends of top apps in the US and the EU (2022–2023)")
And it doesn’t stop at Sports games. Football tournaments tend to spill their impact over into other genres, too, usually through LiveOps. We can already see the FIFA World Cup 2026 traces showing up in Casual games. Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story launched Goal for Goal, Royal Match introduced Royal Cup Pass, and Coin Master went all-in with three parallel FIFA World Cup-themed events: Present Pursuit - FIFA World Cup, Merge Haven - FIFA World Cup, and Better Together - FIFA World Cup.
UEFA EURO follows a downloads trend similar to the FIFA World Cup, albeit on a more moderate scale, with downloads peaking at +35% during the finals. Revenue, however, spikes up earlier, increasing by +20% during the opening stage before gradually slowing toward the end of the tournament.
As with the FIFA World Cup, some editions of UEFA EURO, such as the 2024 tournament, show a similar pattern, with growth mainly driven by top titles like EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile Soccer 26 and Soccer Superstar.
FIFA Club World Cup looks quieter on the surface, especially for downloads, peaking at +13% during the finals. But revenue has a different pattern: steady growth from +23% at the opening stage to +33% during the finals makes it the strongest monetization performer among all the events analyzed.
In 2025, the tournament allowed us to spot another trend, where downloads growth was driven by a newly launched game. In this case, we suspect Referee Simulator 3D timed its release to the tournament, helping fuel category growth.
Downloads trends of top apps in the US and EU (2025)")
The NFL generates a gradual increase throughout the season, with the strongest uplift occurring around the final, when downloads increase by 30% and revenue by 28%.
Copa América delivers moderate downloads growth, with installs advancing throughout the tournament and peaking at 27% during the finals. Revenue, however, remains largely flat throughout the event.
Here’s a little twist: in 2024, Copa América demonstrated a mix of the patterns we caught before. Downloads growth during the opening stage was largely driven by the new release of MAD FUT GENERATIONS, while Soccer Superstar turned out to be the main growth driver during the finals.
Here is the summary on the gaming part: - FIFA World Cup generates the strongest uplifts in both Sports game and Sports app downloads, with a very clear build-up toward the finals. - Copa América and the NFL show a much smaller effect on the revenue, while the FIFA Club World Cup was the main driver of growth. - Most football events follow that same “late peak” pattern, just with different intensity levels. - Category growth is often driven either by a handful of leading titles or by well-timed new releases launched around major football events.
Conclusion: The Winners of the Football Season
The influence that football events have on the mobile market is undeniable, with the FIFA World Cup remaining the most powerful sporting event for the mobile ecosystem year after year.
It generates the largest uplift across both Sports apps and Sports games. However, this push from the tournament happens differently across categories: - Sports Apps typically jump in both downloads and revenue during the event, - Sports Games usually build their downloads throughout the competition, and they often remain elevated after it ends. And as for revenue, the effect is usually more limited and less steady.
There is also a bigger context that occasionally blurs the effect, making it harder to track the real event or app driving the growth, such as regional events or corresponding app releases. Still, the growth of interest is undeniable, and developers across different niches can use it to grow and monetize their audience. That is why we see many developers launching football-themed LiveOps across multiple genres.
In 2026, the football club season has already wrapped up in Europe and will only be back on in the fall. Meanwhile, it is in full swing in Latin America. Now, the FIFA World Cup is just getting started, already writing new pages in the history of the sport and preparing fans worldwide for an increasingly intense level of competition. While we are still to find out which clubs and countries will be lifting the coveted trophies, one thing is certain: football’s ability to capture attention and move the mobile market remains as strong as ever!